Picked up a stack of sword & sorcery / heroic fantasy books and anthologies. Going to pick my way through those for a bit, I hope. I don’t really get the split in those terms. I’ve always seen sword & sorcery far more often. It’s more evocative and just works better to me.
First up is Swords and Sorcery, an anthology of heroic fantasy, edited by L. Sprague de Camp.
The intro is good. De Camp explains what he means by heroic fantasy from the jump:
“ ‘Heroic fantasy’ is the name of a class of stories laid, not in the world as it is or was or will be, but as it ought to have been to make a good story. The tales collected under this name are adventure-fantasies, laid in imaginary prehistoric or medieval worlds, when (it’s fun to imagine) all men were mighty, all women were beautiful, all problems were simple, and all life was adventurous. In such a world, gleaming cities raise their shining spires against the stars; sorcerers cast sinister spells from subterranean lairs; baleful spirits stalk crumbling ruins; primeval monsters crash through jungle thickets; and the fate of kingdoms is balanced on the bloody blades of broadswords brandished by heroes of preternatural might and valor.”
Hell, yeah. I want to go to there.
The first story is a Snarf special. The Valor of Cappen Varra by Poul Anderson. A bard aboard a viking longship is forcibly sent to a troll-infested island to find fire. The first half was a bit of a drag but the second half really picked up and it had a nice bit of a twist at the end.
